The mission of the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) is to foster opportunities for businesses to grow and for communities to succeed and thrive in a global economy. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for Pennsylvania citizens while assuring transparency and accountability in the expenditure of public funds.

COVID-19 Working Capital Access Program (CWCA)

Overview

The COVID-19 Working Capital Access (CWCA) Program is administered by the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA) and provides critical working capital financing to small businesses located within the Commonwealth that are adversely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.

All CWCA loan applications must be submitted through a Certified Economic Development Organization (CEDO). For the list of CEDO’s operating within Pennsylvania, please refer to the CEDO webpage.

Uses

Working capital, which for purposes of this program is considered capital used by a small business for operations, excluding fixed assets and production machinery and equipment.

Eligibility

An eligible small business enterprise is a for-profit corporation, limited liability company, partnership, proprietorship or other legal business entity located in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and having 100 or fewer full-time employees worldwide at the time of submission of the application. For purposes of this program a retail/service enterprise is defined as a for-profit business entity that is involved in the business-to-business service, business-to-public service, mercantile, commercial, or point of sale retail sectors. An agricultural producer is defined as a business involved in the management and use of a normal agricultural operation for the production of a farm commodity. A “farm commodity” is any Pennsylvania-grown agricultural, horticultural, aquacultural, vegetable, fruit, and floricultural product of the soil, livestock and meats, wools, hides, furs, poultry, eggs, dairy products, nuts, mushrooms, honey products, and forest products.

Funding

The maximum loan amount is $100,000.

Terms

Loan terms are three years with a 12-year amortization. In addition, 1) No payments will be due and payable during the first year, 2) Principal and if applicable, interest payments will be due monthly for years two and three, and 3) A balloon payment will be due and payable at the end of the third year.

The interest rate for the program is 0% except for agricultural producers in which case the interest rate is 2% fixed for the life of the loan.

How to Apply

Loan applications are packaged by a CEDO that services the county your business is located in. The CEDO will work with you to determine if the CWCA loan program can assist with financing the needs of your business and will discuss with you in detail how the application process works. Visit the Certified Economic Development Organization webpage for a complete listing by county.